As I walk casually down the crowded streets of Orlando, i catch a stream of beautiful music and a video on television. Some guys are dancing in the rain singing something about quit doing something or other....the rain is so like that night long ago.....
20 b.c. rome........
I groan as i wake slowly from the dream that i just had. “That seemed so real, too real.” i say softly to myself.
I start slightly as the lightning and thunder sounds fill the room. And the sound of the pouring rain falls against the thatched roof of the hut. Looking around i realize that i am surprisingly not in my room. Wildly i look about me, nothing familiar to my aching eyes, i see a woman in the corner of the dimly lit room. Surrounding her, are yards of pillows and silks and such materials as a peasant as i have never encountered before.
I sit up slowly aching in places i never knew i had. I slowly clear my throat and am greeted by a bright smile from my savior. “Madam, may i please ask you how i came to be here? what has happened to me? to my attacker?” I ask the beautiful woman quitely.
She looks at me with concern and a motherly look i have never seen before, because i never knew my mother. She seems to know this, how i do not know. She answers me, with an unusual accent. “My dear, no need to call me, “madam” i am your friend, i saved you because you are like me. I saw something in you that i had not seen in millenia, something that was in me, but i have lived too long for it to survive. It is fresh within you. I must tell you something that you will not believe at first, but you must believe. It is completely true, i would not lie to you. “ a pause then, “Cassandra, you are now immortal. A night walker you are, as am i. We are vampires, you and i, yet we are different from any other creature, vampire or not, to walk this earth. You see my dear, we can walk during the day as well as night. That ensures our survival, for there are not that many of our kind left. But, you, my dear, are different from any immortal being that i have ever encountered. “ she pauses again, seeing my shock and bewilderment. “How did you know my name? this is a jest, surely, madam, there are no such creatures. There cannot be. That defies everything i have been taught.” i flounder for words, and am interrupted by her again. “Cassandra, i told you that you would not believe me, i shall show you how real this is.” she stands up, walks over to the palet where i sit, and crouches down to face me directly.
“Cassandra, i am about to show you how incredibly real all of this is. You must believe me, when i say that i will never hurt you. No matter what you see her tonight, believe that. I never break my word, and i never lie to those i love.” she says sincerely.
I somehow believe her, but then I gasp, as i see her blue eyes turn red and her teeth grow to long fangs. I move back as far as i can, and my eyes widen.
“How can this be? This cannot be real. I must be dead, that is what it is. I am in hell.” i cry, as her eyes return to normal and her fangs are hidden again.
“My dear, you shall never go to hell. You are the chosen one, you will live forever, in the grace of god’s eyes. Unlike all of the others of our kind, you are favored and were meant to become a breed of vampire that has never existed before tonight.” she gauges my reaction, looking deep into my fear stricken eyes.
“how....” i interrupt myself with a gasp of pain that surfaces from the bottom of my small pale feet to the tip of my dark , curly head. I scream as white hot streams of lightning flow through my body, causing my savior, Serephine as i now catch from her thoughts, to jump back away from my lightning encased body.
My screams rhent the air, as i am pricked with a thousand swords. Now my body floats 5 feet from the ground. I scream louder as the pain intensifies, bringing me to the brink of unconsciousness. Suddenly, when i think i will die from it, it all stops. i fall to the palet and lay there, catching my breath.
“that was the strangest thing that i have ever encounted. Even in all of my 3087 years of living.” Serephine says, quietly walking back over to me.
I feel a strangeness coming over my body and lay there thinking about what just happened to me. I feel more alive than i ever have before. Thoughts of generations of people that came before me, churn through my frazzled mind.
“I shall teach you all you need to know Cassandra. So that you shall survive throughout the ages.” Serephine tells me helping me up with one arm.
“i am truly indebted to you, Serephine, i shall never forget this. I will stay by your side forever. We shall be best friends for all eternity.” i tell her, pulling her into a tight hug. Serephine looks surprised at my use of her given name, but says nothing to me. Letting me go, she walks back over to her velvet and silk covered bed and lays down.
present....2000 a.d.
Yes, all so long ago this happened. I think of Serephine, my best friend in the entire universe. This thought, causes my eyes to tear, a rarity with me. I lost her so long ago, i never thought that she would be taken away from me. But everyone is wrong at least once in their lives, right?
Chapter Two
Prologue
Story Index